Earlier this week, the Romney campaign sent out the fire-breathing sister of serial bigot Pat Buchanan to signal that Mitt Romney no longer supported a federal constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, and likely take a slew of civil rights away from gays and lesbians, including private sector protections and benefits, such as health insurance for partners, which might no longer be enforceable in court if the amendment were to pass. The amendment might also make domestic abuse laws unconstitutional as they pertain to unmarried straight couples.

This was a flip-flop from Romney’s previous position in favor of said amendment.

Then, like clockwork, just a few days later, someone yells at Romney privately and – voila! – he’s anti-gay again, and now re-supports enshrining anti-gay prejudice in the US Constitution, the same way racism and sexism was enshrined there so many years ago.

A top Romney adviser disavowed remarks and a position reported this past week that appeared to be a reversal of the campaign’s support of the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would bar states from allowing same-sex couples to marry.Although campaign officials did not respond to inquiries prior to publication, Bay Buchanan issued a clarification to BuzzFeed this afternoon following initial publication of this story, writing, “Governor Romney supports a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution that defines marriage as an institution between a man and a woman. Governor Romney also believes, consistent with the 10th Amendment, that it should be left to states to decide whether to grant same-sex couples certain benefits, such as hospital visitation rights and the ability to adopt children. I referred to the Tenth Amendment only when speaking about these kinds of benefits – not marriage.”

The man is pathetic. He claimed for years that he was more pro-gay than Ted Kennedy, then tried to portray himself as the second coming of Jerry Falwell, then, because his macho bravado son Tagg, the one who threatened to punch the president, advised Romney to pretend he’s a liberal again, Romney reversed course and then opposed the constitutional amendment. And now, because the religious right clearly yelled at him behind closed doors, Romney flip-flops again and supports the amendment all over again.

Why Do Gay Republicans Still Support This Man?

I get why GOProud is supporting Romney – they’re not in this to help advance the cause of our civil rights. But Log Cabin, and specifically its executive director, R. Clark Cooper, have acted with more maturity over the last eight years. Cooper, to his credit, got Log Cabin involved in Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell lawsuit that was rather successful at putting further pressure on the Obama administration to make good on its promise to get DADT repealed. But now Cooper is back to advocating for Romney’s election, even if his organization still hasn’t taken an official position endorsing Romney.

Gay Republicans get all upset when gay Democrats look on them with scorn and label them as psychologically damaged. And then people like Mitt Romney propose something as vile as codifying discrimination against gays and lesbians in the US Constitution, in the year 2012, and you have to ask yourself, what kind of self-respecting gay person would help to elect someone who thinks so little of their own humanity?

Perhaps the reason we keep labeling gay Republicans self-loathing is because there’s no other explanation for why a group of people would support those who wish them harm. It’s like political S&M, without the safe word.

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.